THE TABLET, February 5th, 1955. VOL. 205, No. 5985

THETABLfc! A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Published as a Newspaper

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

FEBRUARY 51h, 1955

NINEPENCE f

The C om m onw ea lth Conference : Anomalies and Opportunities CyprUS and JVlalta : Observations from a Recent Tour. By Patrick Wall, M.P. The Key to th e Formosa Crisis: A Change in U.S. Policy. By Wilfred Ryder N ew Towns and th e Country: Planning Without Purpose. By John M. Todd Essentialism : A Philosophy Run Wild. By A. H. N. Green-Armytage The Lawrence Legend: An Inspector Calls. By Christopher Sykes A Letter from R om e : Communist Schools and Petticoat Influence. By Gunnar Kumlien B o o k s R e v i e w e d : Catholic Approaches, edited by Lady Pakenham ; Jinnah, Creator o f

Pakistan, by Hector Bolitho ; The Great Prayer, by Hugh Ross-Williamson ; The Season o f the Year, by John Moore ; The Poetry o f Dylan Thomas, by Elder Olson ; Answer to Job, by C. G. Jung ; By Invitation Only, by Félicien Marceau, The Liner, by Edouard Peisson, Race Rock, by Peter Matthiessen, and Academic Year, by D. J. Enright. Reviewed by Dom Bede Griffiths, O.S.B., A. L. Potez, Mgr. Gordon Wheeler, Pamela Hinkson, Anthony

Bertram, Dr. F. B. Elkisch and Robert Cardigan.

A CARIBBEAN JOURNEY

T HE visit of Princess Margaret to the islands of the West Indies is not an occasion for the airing of political and economic grievances. As The Times remarked, they “have always been noted for their loyalty to the Crown and for their hospitality. During the next four weeks they will have plenty of opportunity for displaying both.” The visit will evoke the display of the deeper unity of the Queen’s subjects which has been undermined in so many parts of the British Empire and Commonwealth but which remains in others the strongest factor against the emotional pulls towards separation. When the Queen visited Jamaica in 1953, one observer noted “as an object lesson in the nature of constitutional government” the experience of seeing the political leaders, many of whom were powerful as organizers of politically-directed Trade Unions or as fiery preachers of extremism, paying their respects to a person who, in the narrow political sense, wields little power but commands immense respect by virtue of what she represents and what she is. The Queen’s visit was the first visit of a reigning sovereign to West Indian territory, and now Princess Margaret, on her much more extensive tour, will be a royal ambassadress of that unity above creed, race or party which is symbolized by the Crown.

There is need for such an assertion in the West Indies today. These small islands are separated by vast distances. There is a great diversity of race and culture and little sense of common social and political purpose. Centuries of slavery have left their mark. There have been great changes in the social and economic organization of these territories, particularly within the last three decades. The establishment of the West Indies Development Organization, the closer relationship of the islands in the war, and the unification, in 1951, of the currencies of the Eastern Caribbean territories have made for greater unity. But political unity has not been brought nearer.

It was hoped that the West Indian Federation might bring these islands into an economic relationship with the Commonwealth and the world at large, so as to attract capital to broaden and diversify their competitive economies. But these expectations were not fulfilled. Federation which was accepted in principle by delegates from all the islands except British Guiana at the Conference of Montego Bay in 1947 was rejected later by British Honduras ; now, Barbados, too, is divided on the issue. The reason is that these islands with their more compact communities fear the consequences of Federation, political disturbances and Negro immigration from the other islands. Trinidad, which has hopes of becoming the centre of the Federation, Jamaica, the Leeward and Windward Islands, are still in favour. But in the meantime there has been greater pressure of poverty, and the difficulties have grown of providing work for a population, now just over three millions and increasing at the annual rate of 2 per cent, and too dependent on an agricultural economy which cannot absorb this increase. Indeed, even with new methods of cultivation and greater productivity the decline in the agricultural population is likely to grow as it does in other countries. Greater industrial development is needed, and above all the preparation of people’s minds and habits for these inevitable changes, though without conditioning them to social upheavals and political unrest, the short cuts of the political adventurers.

One result of this changing pattern of life is the stream of Jamaicans coming to England to escape unemployment at home. It is a necessary consequence of that vicious circle which has made economic development dependent on political unity. In his recent appeal to the Daily Sketch to support